Turkey wants Russia to lower gas prices

Turkey will try to obtain a discount from Russia for the gas supplied by this country, and this issue will be discussed with the management of Russia's Gazprom in coming days, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz said, the country's TRT Haber TV channel reported on April 21.

The information about that Gazprom refused to offer any discount to Ankara for the supplied gas, is untrue, according to the minister.

"The contract signed between Ankara and Moscow gives every reason for Turkey to demand a discount on the supplied gas," Yildiz said.

Turkish minister went on to add that the increase of gas supply to Turkey will also be discussed during the talks with Gazprom.

The Turkish state pipeline company Botas imported 38.42 billion cubic meters of gas from various sources in 2013, compared to 43.09 billion cubic meters in 2012.

Gas prices are not officially disclosed, but Turkey buys Russian gas at $425 per 1000 cubic meters, according to Turkish media. Turkey pays $335 for one thousand cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas which is supplied via the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline). The country pays $490 for 1000 cubic meters of Iranian gas.

Turkey has contracts with Russia to supply 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year, with Iran it is 10 billion cubic meters of gas and with Azerbaijan - 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas.

Turkey also has an agreement with Algeria and Nigeria for the supply of 4.4 billion and 1.2 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas respectively per year.